TIME Ideas: We Need To Take Meditation More Seriously As Medicine

"...a new review study, published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine, suggests that the ancient Eastern practice of mindful meditation can offer real help for patients with depression, anxiety, and pain. And researchers are increasingly demonstrating the measurable influence of meditation on the brain, proving that mindfulness programs can make us feel happier, have greater emotional resilience and take fewer sick days.
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...what’s most striking about the JAMA findings is that people weren’t
meditating for very long. Many in the underlying studies meditated for
as little as 2.5 hours per week for two months. As Dr. Goyal points out,
because meditation is a skill that’s learned over time, it’s unlikely
the respondents reached a high level of expertise. So according to him,
it’s plausible to think that people would experience even greater
benefits with more rigorous training and practice."